IRAN: Bending on nuclear talks?
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Is Iran ready to talk?
After spurning European offers to return to the negotiating table over its nuclear enrichment program, a powerful Iranian politician said his country is ready to compromise.
Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a relative moderate who heads the country’s powerful Expediency Council, told worshipers gathered for Friday prayer in Tehran today that negotiation is ‘the best thing’ to resolve the dispute between the West and Tehran over Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Iran has thus far declined to sit down with European officials to craft another package of incentives in exchange for suspending its nuclear enrichment program. Powerful voices in the Iranian political scene have demanded that Iran not budge one inch on the issue of enrichment.
Iran argues that it is permitted to enrich uranium under the terms of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which allows signatories to develop nuclear technology so long as they abide by international safeguards. The U.S. counters that Iran’s past nuclear activities place a cloud of suspicion over Iran’s drive to master the enrichment of uranium, the key technical hurdle in developing a nuclear weapons program as well as creating fuel to power an electricity plant.
Rafsanjani didn’t say if Iran would be willing to negotiate over its enrichment program. But he did say Iran could continue its ‘peaceful’ and ‘legal’ nuclear activities while resuming negotiations. It was a hint of flexibility coming from one faction within the Iranian leadership:
Although the [International Atomic Energy Agency] has emphasized that Iran has not deviated in its [nuclear] activities, the oppressor powers have still not ended creating troubles for us. I tell them they are making a mistake and that the only result of what they are doing is further polluting of the atmosphere of the region and the world... Under such conditions that Iran is ready for sitting at the negotiation table although its activities, too, are completely legal and we have signed the entire related commitments and are abiding by them, I think the best thing to do for both sides is to negotiate.
Meanwhile, a voice within the U.S. government has also called for talks with Iran. California Sen. Dianne Feinstein told an audience in Washington this week that the U.S. should engage in unconditional talks with Iran over a number of issues, including its nuclear program.
U.S. and Iranian officials already talk (or talk of talking) about security in Iraq. But so far, the Bush administration has refused to speak with Iran about its nuclear program unless it suspends its enrichment program.
Feinstein spoke at a conference organized by the National Iranian American Council, a Beltway lobbying group that advocates better relations between Washington and Tehran:
I believe we should begin to pursue a robust, diplomatic initiative with Iran on all issues and without preconditions. These [past] offers have been presented with preconditions and without the full engagement of the United States. We need a fresh approach and fresh ideas.
— Borzou Daragahi in Beirut
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